All posts by sharanam

Occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.

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First, an explanation perhaps. Why months have gone by without a word. A post in October but penned in August. A flurry of opinions I’d sat on for months before that, released into the world with trepidation and with consequences. Life hasn’t really been the same.

I’m a week or so away from my 35th birthday and I can confidently say that the Dhamma (dharma) has been a big part of my life for the better part of the past 20 years, arguably even the whole of it. My family’s not Buddhist, and I didn’t have any Buddhist influences growing up, but I was always questioning, investigating, wanting to understand the ways of the mind and heart. Even though I was lucky enough to come across my first book on meditation at 14, and my first formal instruction at 18, it honestly wasn’t until just before my 31st birthday that things started to click. And it wasn’t until another couple of years passed that I truly learned how to meditate—meditate as a way of life.

“The desire to…the identity to belong is based on fear, and inclusion and exclusion. The aspiration to awaken is prepared to negotiate all of those boundaries.”

I was particularly struck by Ajahn Thanasanti’s words in this conversation with Gina Sharpe because of my own strong desire to be inclusive, which is then reflected in a corresponding aversion to any sense of exclusion and perhaps paradoxically, if unchecked, results in the same! Sadly, I sense a lot of “clubby” behavior, particularly online.

Who among us has not suffered the thought “I’m not ___ enough” at some point or another. Whether it’s physical (not strong enough), or intellectual (not smart enough), or psychological (not sensitive enough)…it all comes down to not good enough. And that’s a pretty awful way to feel. In most cases, it’s just a thought. It’s not true at all.

The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. When love and hate are both absent everything becomes clear and undisguised. Make the smallest distinction, however and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.